Last month I was very lucky to receive a fab bookish party pack in celebration of the excellent books to be found at MyKindaBook. I’ve been a fan of MyKindaBook for a long time so I jumped at the chance to be part of the #MKBParty weekend at the end of November and I had so much fun that I’m carrying on the party this New Years Eve with a party round up and a lovely little giveaway to get 2017 off to an excellent start!

So, here are the three brilliant books that I received as part of the pack – what a fab trio! I ran a little poll on Twitter to see which book my fellow readers would recommend that I tried first and the winner was Beautiful Broken Things by Sara Barnard so this was the book that I read over the #MKBParty weekend and I loved it.

Beautiful Broken Things is the story of best friends Caddy and Rosie and what happens to them and their friendship when a new girl moves to town. This book took me straight back to my own teenage years and how close and brilliant those friendships can be but also how fragile, emotional and heartbreaking. There was so much that I related to in this book and Sara has done a brilliant job of creating believable characters and situations.

This is a very readable and gripping story, yet with so many important messages and tackles a painful topic (domestic abuse and its effects) in a way that is thought provoking and understandable and importantly, focuses on the wide ranging repercussions without being overly dramatic or sharing the disturbing details. Much of this books impact on me was in what was left unsaid and I can’t wait to read more from Sara. Luckily, I won’t have long as her new novel, A Quiet Kind of Thunderis out on 12th January!

When Amanda met Rainbow :-)

The second book in my box of treats was Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I’m a big fan of Rainbow Rowell and already own all of her books. Fangirl is a brilliant example of what Rainbow does best; putting wonderful characters on the page with great dialogue and quirky romance. In Fangirl identical twins Cath and Wren go off to university and whilst Wren decides to embrace the new experience in full to the point of separating herself from her sister for the first time, Cath struggles. I loved Cath and again could relate to the situations that she found herself in (including being too scared to go to the dining hall) and her shyness. Cath writes amazing fan-fiction and this element of the story is also brilliant and her love of her characters struck a strong note with me. Fangirl is a great book about coping with change and growing up and do check out Rainbow’s other books both Adult and Young Adult if you haven’t already. As I’ve already got a lovely copy of Fangirl I’m going to offer the copy I received in this pack along with some other goodies in a giveaway at the end of this post so please do enter!

The final book in my party pack is this gorgeous new blue cover edition of The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge. This book won the Costa Book of the Year award for 2015 and I’ve heard nothing but good things about it. I haven’t read it yet but will be soon as my book club has chosen it as our book for our March meet up! here’s the synopsis – I can’t wait to read it!

Faith’s father has been found dead under mysterious circumstances, and as she is searching through his belongings for clues she discovers a strange tree. The tree only grows healthy and bears fruit if you whisper a lie to it. The fruit of the tree, when eaten, will deliver a hidden truth to the person who consumes it. The bigger the lie, the more people who believe it, the bigger the truth that is uncovered.

The girl realizes that she is good at lying and that the tree might hold the key to her father’s murder, so she begins to spread untruths far and wide across her small island community. But as her tales spiral out of control, she discovers that where lies seduce, truths shatter . . .

As well as more info, extracts and interviews on the books in my party pack, you can find lots more great reads on the MyKindaBook site and sign up for discussions, giveaways and more – do pop over there! In 2017 I’m looking forward to Heartless by Marissa Meyer (February), The State of Grace by Rachael Lucas and Windfall by Jennifer E. Smith (May).

I wish you all a very happy new reading year!

Giveaway!

To be in with a chance of winning all of the goodies pictured below just leave comment in the box below or re-Tweet one of my tweets about this giveaway or like one of my posts about this giveaway on my Instagram page.

I’ll pick a winner using Random.org after the closing date.

This giveaway is open to UK residents only and will close at midnight on Saturday 7th January. Good Luck!